Judith L. Pearson's Blog, page 11

Ride On, Sybil!

As we near the 4th of July celebration, I offer this reminder of the part we girls played in the struggle for our nation’s independence.

Case in point – Sybil Ludington, the 16 year-old daughter of a New York militia officer, was with her family on the night of April 26, 1777, when word reached her house that the British were burning the town of Danbury, CT, where munitions and supplies for the entire region were stored.

With permission from her father, Sybil leapt on her horse and rode more than 40 miles to summon volunteer militia to repel the British raid.  Not only was it a big undertaking for a teenage girl, she rode TWICE as far as Paul Revere did on his famous ride!

I Am Officially a Woman Warrior!

 

My friend (and childhood neighbor), Diane Dempster, founder of Inner-Progress Coaching, is the host of a weekly radio show called Women Warriors.

She graciously asked me to share a couple of the lessons from It’s Just Hair on this week’s show.  Give a listen!

David vs. Ms. Goliath

In 2000, Betty Dukes, then a Wal-Mart employee and still a very courageous woman, brought a suit against the retail giant, claiming discrimination.  By the time the suit got to the Supreme Court in 2011, it had grown to include a million plaintiffs.  On June 20 of last year, the nation’s highest court threw the case out, stating basically that while the plaintiffs may have been discriminated against, their cases were too dissimilar to be heard as one giant case.

I imagine there will be just as many dissimilar feelings about this case among the readers of this blog.  But there is one thing I think we can all agree on: watching our system of justice at work is like watching a finely choreographed ballet.  You and I may or may not like the way the dance ends, but watching it unfold is fascinating.

In other news … tune in to this Wednesday’s broadcast of Women Warriors Blog Talk Radio, where I’ll be chatting with other women warriors about courage, being chosen for great things, and why hair just isn’t that important!

Let’s Celebrate!

LOS ANGELES – It’s Just Hair: 20 Essential Life Lessons has been named a finalist in the 2012 INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS (IBA).  Jeffrey Keen, President and CEO of JPX Media Group, said this year’s contest yielded a large number of entries from authors and publishers around the world, which were then narrowed down to the final results.

May I bask in the glow?  Holy cow – what a thrill!

And it’s seconded only by the fact that each time someone speaks to me about the book, they tell me that it came into their lives at EXACTLY the right time.  Either they or someone close to them found comfort (a a few giggles) from it.  Now that’s the real honor!

I Can Do Anything!

Who needs a dose of self-confidence courage?  It’s waiting for you on the You Tube video entitled “Jessica’s Daily [image error]Affirmation.”  It’s a wonderful lesson for all ages.  She’s not performing for the camera.  She’s completely unconscious of anyone else in the room.  It’s exactly who we should all be!

Birthday Girl

It doesn’t much matter what your politics are, I think we can all agree that Madeleine Albright is a woman of courage.  She was the first woman to be appointed Secretary of State (there have been two more women since – I’d say we might be learning that female skills are darned important in that arena!), but Albright was courageous in other areas before that prestigious [image error]post.

Born in Czechoslovakia in 1937, her family fled to England just ahead of the Nazi invasion, and converted from the Jewish faith to Catholicism.  Albright didn’t learn of her true roots until later in life, when she also learned that the Holocaust claimed the lives of three of her grandparents.  The family arrived in the U.S. in 1948, and Albright began an impressive educational and professional journey that brought her to the attention of the nation.

Today is Madeleine Albright’s birthday. I  think we owe her a big thanks and a wish for a fulfilling year ahead.  Three cheers, Madam Secretary!

Chernobyl Women of Courage

On April 26, 1986, the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred. The scene was the Chernobyl plant in the Soviet Union. An explosion and fire sent radioactivity into the atmosphere.  An estimated 31 Soviets died immediately.  An untold number of Soviets were affected in the days and years to follow.

But a courageous group of women returned to this nuclear wasteland.  A pull from their ancestry or an irrational effort to resettle?  The reason is debatable.  What’s important is to recognize that women have an organic and inherent need to establish community.  Read the full story about these courageous women here.

Je ne regrette rien …

The French sparrow, Edith Piaf, sang the now famous the words, “Non, je ne regrette rien.” Translation: “No, I don’t regret anything.”  An amazing way to look at life and according to Stefanie Brassen of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany and her colleagues, it could possibly be a key to successful aging.  

What the Brassen team found through experiments with participants ranging in age from their 20’s to their 60’s was that young people tend to fixate on their regrets.  Older adults, on the other hand, generally learn not to waste time wallowing in remorse about past circumstances they cannot change.

Brassen’s brain-imaging results suggest that stronger spasms of regret rippled through the minds of young people and depressed adults than through those of healthy older adults.

My personal experiences over the last year have caused me to begin to examine life in the same way.  Basically, stewing over our our life challenges won’t change them, so why not step outside of the situation and try to find a positive that could come from the adversity.

My family celebrated the long and wonderful 97 year long life of my darling Auntie Ethel last weekend.  She epitomized Edith Piaf’s words of no regrets.  How courageous and if it’ll get me to 97, I’m in!

The Secret Weapon

So the Secret Service did secret things in Columbia that are no longer secret.  Instead, they’re all over the news and and the agency is in a state of disgrace.  Now, I am not a prude.  I don’t care who has sex, as long as they’re both consenting adults.  But an agent on assignment, even during his “off” hours, is still on the public time clock.  Therefore, enlisting the companionship of a prostitute is just stupid.  Period, case closed.

An interesting side development comes from current statements that if there were more women in the Secret Service, such a situation might not have arisen.  I tend to agree, but not for the obvious reason.  To suggest that female agents could act as babysitters for their more randy co-workers is ludicrous.  (However,  it’s a pretty sure bet that a woman agent could do a week in Columbia, or anywhere else for that matter, and not need to have intercourse.)  What  many federal agencies, and most corporations, fail to understand is that women offer entirely different types of reasoning, communication, and myriad other skills, than do their male counterparts. Not necessarily better, but different.  And different is good.

Furthermore, since the women who apply for positions in male-dominated fields are clearly swimming upstream, I think the level of courage they exhibit is a great lesson for either gender.

Currently 11% of the active Secret Service agents are women.  Similarly, 14.6% of active American military personnel are women.  While neither the CIA nor the FBI publish such numbers, I’m guessing theirs are similar.  Yet more than 50% of the American population is female.  The time to rethink things has, come and come again.

 

A Winning Woman

I became a high school basketball coach in 1975.  It was the year Title Nine was born, legislation ensuring that girls would have sports offerings equal to boys.  My tenure as coach lasted 5 years, a mere drop in the bucket as compared to the 39 year career of the NCAA’s winning-est basketball coach of all time.

I’m referring, of course, to Pat Summitt, the Lady Vols’ (University of Tennessee) head coach.  Summitt announced her transition from head coach to an emeritus status yesterday (April18) as the result of a diagnosis last year of early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s type.

Summitt’s career included 1,098 victories and eight national championships.  It doesn’t matter how much of a basketball fan you are.  Those numbers are pretty darned impressive.

Much more impressive are the courage and grace Summitt has exhibited in the face of her diagnosis.  We are once again reminded that no one is exempt from life’s trials, but the way in which we handle them will serve to coach others in their challenges.

Thanks for your leadership, Coach Summitt.  You are a winner!